


First blood

by Somaybelikeno



Series: Reylo weekly challenge [2]
Category: Star Wars
Genre: F/M, Kid Fic, Reylo babies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 22:07:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15204470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Somaybelikeno/pseuds/Somaybelikeno
Summary: It’s how it should be, he tells himself. She’s old enough to start earning her own scratches. There’s nothing he can do about it but let her. They’re not battle wounds, but a natural part of life.





	First blood

**Author's Note:**

> My second instalment in the Reylo weekly challenge over on tumblr. The theme was "first blood".
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

At some point in his life he’d stopped caring about the physical damage his body would sustain in battle. Sometime before Luke’s betrayal he’d started ignoring his own pain. Then, after, he’d learned that it did not matter. As Kylo Ren, he’s walked from battles carrying mortal wounds without giving it a single though.

 

You learn to take things in stride.

 

It’s an odd thing then, in some ways frightening even, that thrill of unease that goes through Ben at the sight of a scratched up toddler knee.

 

At two foot nine, she still has a lot of growing up to do. Children, he has learned, are selfish beings. Yet when his baby, _their_ baby comes running from where she’s been playing with her friends, her arms stretched out for comfort she most surely takes for granted, there’s nothing he can do but, well, grant it.

 

It’s how it should be.

 

Baby girl latches her arms around his neck and tucks her head under his chin, her bottom lip pushed out and quivering. Ben inspects her bloodied knee with a careful hand. He’s never actually seen her skin broken before. Bruised? Yes. Blood? No.

 

It’s how it should be, he tells himself. She’s old enough to start earning her own scratches. There’s nothing he can do about it but let her. They’re not battle wounds, but a natural part of life.

 

Her tears aren’t easily persuaded away, not even when her mother comes up to soothe her wounds. Rey heals the baby’s cut with gentle fingers and a kiss on the forehead, her expression sober yet warm all the way. It won’t do to teach a child that banged up knees are the end of the world.

 

Yet when Rey’s skin brushes Ben’s the old memories resurfaces; a girl barely older than five, her hands are bleeding because of something as simple as falling on a sharp rock hidden in the sand. No one had been there to kiss it better. The little things can be insurmountable for such a small body. He learned that when their baby was new to the world, when the smallest of discomforts were reason enough to keep her parents awake throughout the night.

 

But it passes. It always does. His daughter sniffles against his shirt front only for a minute longer, and then she’s wriggling out of his arms again, her wounds forgotten. Rey takes his hand as their child goes running off at her full speed, gait still wobbly.

 

Hey there kid. Looks like you banged yourself up there pretty good.

 

Rey’s mouth quirks into a smile at Ben’s own memory. His father had lifted him up in his arms, and carried him home, where his mother was waiting with a bacta patch and a cup of Hoth chocholate. The little things that make everything better to fight off the little things that makes things worse.

 

He meets Rey’s gaze over their clasped hands. Squinting in the sunlight, she smiles fondly at him as the shouts of children fills the summer air.

 

All is well, he thinks, and squeezes her hand. They will make it right this time around. All is well.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m somaybelikeno on tumblr :)


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